1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wheelchair combined with a lift or hoist.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many devices for lifting and transporting nonambulatory persons have been devised in the past. U.S. Pat. No. 4,193,147, issued to Edwin L. Fischer on Mar. 18, 1980, discloses a wheelchair having an outrigger and sling for lifting a person from the chair. The wheelchair also has armrests which are removable from the wheelchair by pulling the same from supporting sockets; the outrigger is similarly removable.
A hoist attachable to any standard wheelchair is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,999,862, issued to James C. Hefty on Mar. 19, 1991. The hoist includes means to suspend a sling therefrom. The wheelchair is disassembled to a certain degree to enable a hoist base to be assembled thereto at the axle. The outrigger is then welded, or otherwise suitably and solidly attached, to the hoist base.
An invalid lift system is shown in U.K. Pat. Document No. 2,179,625, dated Mar. 11, 1987. The invention shown therein includes a wheelchair frame having a removable seat. The seat is removable from the frame, and is suspended from a cooperating stanchion. Apart from being configured to support the wheelchair seat, the frame and stanchion are separate and unrelated to one another.
A number of devices suitable for transferring an invalid, as from a wheelchair to a bed, have been proposed in the prior art. These devices generally include a boom mounted on a vertical mast, which in turn is supported on a U-shaped base having casters or wheels. U.S. Pat. No. 5,153,953, issued to Joe L. Sumrall, exemplary of such devices, is manually disassembled due to peg and hole construction, components being held together by gravity.
Further examples of transfer devices include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,877,421, issued to Cicero C. Brown on Apr. 15, 1975 and 4,144,713, issued to Raymond Clark et al.; and French Pat. Document No. 775,907, dated Jan. 12, 1935.
A user-collapsible wheelchair is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,188,383, issued to Josephine M. Thompson on Feb. 23, 1993. The wheelchair folds in accordion fashion at pivot joints, rather than disassembling into separate components.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.